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Trump's presidential reality show

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In private conversations with President Trump before his first Omarosa eruption, advisers counseled him to hold his tongue.

What we're hearing: Several told him to ignore her and that engaging would only boost her book sales. Trump said privately that First Lady Melania Trump had advised him to stay above it. But they knew he wouldn't be able to resist.

And they were right. Trump's reality TV background, always a subtext of his approach to governing, this week became thedominant sensibilityas he and his aides repeatedly engaged the celebrity villain from his "Apprentice" days:

Trump tweets about the former communications director for his Office of Public Liaison: "When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!"

Even Trump defender Geraldo Rivera scolded the president for that one: "Fear my friend @realDonaldTrump undermines himself by using intemperate, boorish language to describe his enemies. I can't stand @OMAROSA a bully, back stabber & big mouth. But to call her a 'dog' & 'low life' is beneath dignity of the office of @POTUS & open to ugly connotation."

The enemy of my enemy ... To bolster his case against O, Trump retweetsMichael Cohen, the former fixer who turned on him and released an audio clip of Trump discussing hush money. Cohen tweeted: To "the many dozens of #journalists who called me, questioning @OMAROSA claim in her new book that @POTUS @realDonaldTrump took a note from me, put it in his mouth and ate it...I saw NO such thing and am shocked anyone would take this seriously."

"Trump's campaign arm ... filed a complaint with an arbitrator, accusing former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman of violating a 2016 confidentiality agreement with her tell-all book and publicity tour." (NPR)